tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269Sun, 04 May 2008 22:29:19 +0000http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/Mark VallenBlogger428125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-217547096377697645Sun, 04 May 2008 21:47:00 +00002008-05-04T15:20:53.888-07:00On May 1st, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that famed L.A. muralist Kent Twitchell settled his lawsuit against the U.S. government for obliterating his six-story mural depiction of artist Ed Ruscha. Starting in 1978, it took Twitchell nine years to complete his mural on an outside wall of the L.A. headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2006 the mural was deliberately painted over http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/05/kent-twitchell-end-of-muralism.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-6956871083861358994Thu, 01 May 2008 19:41:00 +00002008-05-01T13:01:15.977-07:00Among the many graffiti slogans scrawled upon the walls of Paris during the rebellion of May 1968, perhaps the one that best summed up the temper of the time was "Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible". But poetic, politically pointed graffiti was not the only thing to adorn the walls of Paris in 68. Anonymous street art posters augmented the May uprising, leaving behind a legacy of socially http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/05/may-68-posters-from-paris-rebellion.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2947571894387022473Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:08:00 +00002008-04-26T23:50:31.109-07:00Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is the subject of a major retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago, the last venue for a traveling exhibition that included stops at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Encompassing nearly 100 of the artist’s most notable prints and paintings, the exhibit features some of the artist’s most iconic canvases, New York Movie (http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/04/edward-hopper-retrospective.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-4807521091339205856Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:41:00 +00002008-04-22T21:57:34.987-07:00Artists and the Iraq warThe April 2008 edition of Modern Painters: The International Contemporary Art Magazine, is devoted to "the politically driven art made in response to war and its critical reception." An introductory statement from the magazine’s Assistant Editor, Quinn Latimer, sums up the profusely illustrated April edition thusly: "Each month, with some discomfiture, we publish art criticism that rarely toucheshttp://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/04/modern-painters-art-war.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-3157864491772787089Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:50:00 +00002008-04-19T13:29:35.476-07:00On April 11, 2008, the inelegantly named Newseum opened in Washington, DC., to great fanfare. Ostensibly created to celebrate journalism in America and beyond, the seven-story museum is the newest and most expensive museum in the United States. Founded by the Freedom Forum and costing $450 million, the latest cultural institution to be added to the nation’s capital is so far receiving rave http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/04/newspeak-newseum.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-1553036132558098166Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:16:00 +00002008-04-12T13:18:03.115-07:00Storefront for Art and Architecture is a non-profit organization in New York that prides itself on being one of that city’s few alternative groups focused upon architecture and urban design. Established in 1982, the group seeks to advance innovative architecture through education, artist’s talks, film screenings, forums, and exhibitions. For the first time the group is conducting an event outsidehttp://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/04/cccp-cosmic-communist-constructions.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2218072888378595524Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:22:00 +00002008-04-10T10:40:36.975-07:00Artists and the Iraq warOn April 7, 2003, Reuters photographer Faleh Kheiber took a photo that will forever speak of the cruelty of war. Kheiber’s photo, and dozens of others taken by fellow Reuters photojournalists working in Iraq, comprise an exhibition of war photography marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War, is the inaugural exhibition for the Idea http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/04/bearing-witness-photos-of-iraq-war.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2721298995044049916Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:06:00 +00002008-04-07T11:16:13.377-07:00 [ Police and Thieves - Anonymous street poster, 2008. ] I spotted this anonymous street art poster of Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles. The title of the poster, Police and Thieves, comes from a Jamaican reggae hit written by Junior Murvin in 1976 and popularized further in a 1977 punk version by The Clash. Rebuking gang violence and http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/04/street-art-mccain-police-and-thieves.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-6555112935281368200Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:29:00 +00002008-04-19T11:48:13.964-07:00Artists and the Iraq warLA vs. War promises to be one of the largest antiwar cultural happenings in the recent history of Los Angeles. Organized by the activist artists of Yo!, the same people who put together the Yo! What Happened to Peace? international touring peace poster exhibit, the LA vs. War extravaganza is scheduled to run April 10 - 13, 2008, at The Firehouse art space in downtown Los Angeles. In the words of http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/04/la-vs-war.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-8135085535668252350Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:06:00 +00002008-04-05T09:22:47.564-07:00Artists and the Iraq warWar: Dance of Death in Black, White, and Blood Red All Over, is the name of a timely exhibition of woodcuts now on view at Los Angeles’ A Shenere Velt Gallery. Printmaker Kurt Brian Webb’s blunt, no-nonsense graphic style makes clear an unequivocal opposition to the forces of war and militarism through prints that are at once honest, sardonic, and mordantly funny. The pale rider of course stalks http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/04/kurt-brian-webb-dance-of-death.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2611936308618789163Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:35:00 +00002008-04-05T09:26:37.865-07:00 [ Blood - Mark Vallen. Oil on masonite. 18" x 24". Click here for a larger view. ] A work in progress, my portrait of an anonymous African American man is intended as a rumination on racial politics in contemporary American society. The painting’s meaning and emotional focus is contingent upon who is viewing it, and while some may see menace, a great many others will perceive dignity. I have http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/04/blood-work-in-progress.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2550685112989575336Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:49:00 +00002008-03-30T18:17:54.539-07:00LACMAMichael GovanBP Grand Entrance [ Spiral Jetty - Robert Smithson. 1970. The famous earthwork construction in Utah imperiled by oil drilling. ] A story by Kirk Johnson titled Plans to Mix Oil Drilling and Art Clash in Utah, appeared in the March 27th edition of the New York Times. The article details how oil drilling in the Great Salt Lake of Utah may threaten Spiral Jetty, the famous earthwork construction created by artist http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/03/spiral-jetty-big-oil-lacma.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-4197089017763940868Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:40:00 +00002008-03-23T23:50:40.273-07:00Today the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed the deaths of four U.S. soldiers in Iraq, bringing the American death toll to 4,000. When I posted my very first article on this blog in November of 2004, some 849 U.S. soldiers had been killed in Iraq. The four American soldiers who lost their lives today died when their patrol vehicle was blown up by a roadside http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/03/4000-us-fatalities-in-iraq-so-far.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-5974689586590881049Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:54:00 +00002008-03-20T00:03:00.438-07:00Artists and the Iraq warTo mark the 5th anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, Foreign Policy in Focus magazine asked me to write a review of Artists Against The War, an exhibition of antiwar art organized and presented by the New York-based Society of Illustrators. A brief excerpt from that review follows, but you can read the entire fully illustrated article at the Foreign Policy in Focus website. "http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/03/artists-against-war-review.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-8231079306443699968Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:14:00 +00002008-03-19T23:51:48.208-07:00Postmodernism-RemodernismThe annual Whitney Biennial at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art is thought of by some as an important but frequently contentious survey of contemporary American art; unveiling the latest trends and directions in the U.S. art scene as well as plumbing the zeitgeist of the nation. If you accept that premise then you might also conclude that the country and its art are in very poor shape http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/03/witless-whitney-wasteland.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2822765534033614122Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:14:00 +00002008-02-29T12:14:44.190-08:00February, 2008 marked the 100th anniversary of "The Eight Independent Painters" exhibition at New York’s MacBeth Gallery. While the event changed the face of American art and established the country’s very first avant-garde art movement, which broke the rules of convention by painting the realities of New York’s working poor and immigrant populations instead of the lives and accomplishments of http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/02/apostles-of-ugliness-100-years-later.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-458697914829259795Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:06:00 +00002008-02-20T10:00:27.461-08:00There are few independent observers of the art world who have not commented on the role money has played in shaping and distorting the arts in recent years. That reality was probably best expressed - inadvertently - by Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art and chief auctioneer, who in 2006 said, "The best art is the most expensive because the market is so smart." How did the http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/02/unveiling-of-robert-scull.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-7124084060591108459Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:16:00 +00002008-02-17T09:31:39.250-08:00On January 29, 2005, I wrote an article titled Body Worlds: The Art of Plastic Corpses?, in which I criticized the popular traveling exhibitions of plasticized human bodies that have garnered so much national attention in the United States. On March 4, 2005, I wrote a follow-up article, Body Worlds Corpse Factory, which took a closer look at Gunther von Hagens, the man behind the "Institute of http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/02/body-worlds-diary-of-dead.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-1419448449538407872Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:54:00 +00002008-02-12T11:25:51.633-08:00LACMAThe Broad Contemporary Art MuseumBP Grand EntranceTables at the elite soirée cost $25,000 (silver), $50,000 (gold) or $100,000 (platinum). Guests included Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger and California’s first lady Maria Shriver, as well as Tom Cruise, Christina Aguilera and a bevy of Hollywood stars. And what was the occasion? - the ostentatious debut party for the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), which houses the modern art collection ofhttp://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/02/broad-contemporary-art-museum-soire.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-6405454802797777103Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:32:00 +00002008-02-11T19:55:05.463-08:00My painting, A People Under Command: USA Today, is included in the traveling exhibit, Fundamental, which opens at Espacio de Cultura LA BOCA in Madrid, Spain, Feb. 21, 2008. Exploring the sensitive subject of religious fundamentalism in the 21st century, the group show at the Madrid gallery runs until until March 2nd, 2008. LA BOCA is located in the Lavapiés neighborhood of the capital, not far http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/02/una-visin-de-religin-totalitaria.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2105645224978633990Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:12:00 +00002008-02-01T13:28:16.567-08:00Eli BroadLACMAMichael GovanOn Jan. 24, 2008, Federal agents raided the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego. Agents also conducted a raid on the Silk Roads Gallery of L.A. Looking for stolen antiquities smuggled out of China, Thailand, Myanmar, and pilfered from Native American sites, dozens of Federalhttp://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/02/federal-agents-raid-california-museums.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2182015616552776279Wed, 16 Jan 2008 03:07:00 +00002008-01-15T19:36:01.388-08:00The modernist movement as it grew out of - or was associated with - the Art Students League of Los Angeles (ASL-LA), is the subject of a fascinating exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art - A Seed of Modernism: The Art Students League of Los Angeles, 1906-1953. The exhibit presents over 100 works of art from students and staff of the ASL-LA, which during its time was the third oldesthttp://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/01/los-angeles-art-students-league.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2336452582968186336Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:05:00 +00002008-04-05T10:55:35.130-07:00Feminist artArt of Punk[ UPDATE - Gee Vaucher's exhibit, Introspective, will be on display in Los Angeles from April 12 through May 3, 2008 at Track 16 Gallery. ]Mostly known for the remarkable graphics she produced for the late 70’s British anarchist punk band Crass, Gee Vaucher continues to create extraordinarily insightful imagery that strips away society’s veneer to reveal hidden truths. Introspective, her http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/01/peace-love-and-crass-art.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-4873267948223135099Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:08:00 +00002008-01-06T14:17:59.148-08:00For the last month or so, posters that look as if they were made from stencils have been appearing on city streets from Los Angeles to New York City. Giving the impression of having been created with black spray-paint and a cut-out template, the grim face on the poster is imperfect with its fuzzy edges and runny paint drips. The image looks like a thousand other stencil visual renderings you’ve http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2008/01/rambo-future-of-street-art.htmlMark Vallentag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311269.post-2432132504550052688Mon, 24 Dec 2007 02:16:00 +00002007-12-23T18:36:44.678-08:00Artists and the Iraq war "They say Osama's in the mountains deep in a cave near Pakistan. But there's a sea of blood in Baghdad, a sea of oil in the sand. Between the Tigris and Euphrates another day comes to an end. It's Christmas In Fallujah, Peace on earth goodwill to men." - Words and Music By Billy Joel. Preformed By Cass Dillon, 2007. I’d like to offer readers best wishes for the holiday season. I’ll resume my http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2007/12/christmas-in-fallujah.htmlMark Vallen